Pioneers of the Brooklyn electro-folk scene, Marc Francis
Hug and his revolving cast of Jeffro Richards, Bethany
Spiers, Dominica Giglio, and Brian Jacobs used mandolin,
cello, trumpet, sliced & diced guitar, gastro-intestinal
bloops & blips, and hazy vocals to create glistening
pop loop gems that left you feeling part of a woozy
lilting waltz. They played their last ever show in Hamburg.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of time.
2004-2009.

¥ Guardian Gig Guide Pick Of The Week: Rock & Pop
- Saturday April 2008 - York
Brooklyn duo tout fine indie folktronica cabaret. Deliberately
plinky plonky music that demands primary school percussion
backing.
¥ Encore magazine - We Fest Music Pick - may 2007 -
Mossyrock
As "I Know I'm Not Wrong" began, i drifted
somewhere back into the '80s. Ethereal pop made up its
sound: Sweet and electronic, with rhythms iconic of
new wave; yet, it was not devoid of depth. One listen
made it clear that Mossyrock had succeeded the '80s,
as this band doesn't depend on simple pop beats to make
their music fun. It's fun because of the variation they
put into it, not relying on one genre to get their point
across. "Take The Chill Off The Cork" is a
perfect example of a diddy that is folk-laden. In fact,
the song's violin squeals in sweet harmony, while the
mandolin backs it up to near perfection. I could listen
to this song over and over again and never tire of it.
Proving diversity can work in a band, "I Want To
Eat Your Eyes" is another step away from the previous
two sounds. It intertwines bass lines with horns, and
the jangle of the tambourine gives it a sweeping movement
that is undeniably sexy. Mossyrock will probably provide
one of the more eclectic and fully entertaining sets
on saturday at 10:30pm in the Laundro Lounge.
¥ FFWD - Kenna Burima - Mossyrock Interview - July 2006
- The Lovely, Electronic, Indie Mossyrock.
(Brooklyn group discovers life after house music with
organic folktronica.)
Going from zero to one isn’t that big a step,
but for Brooklyn’s Mossyrock, their latest album
solidifies their move away from their four-on-the-floor
club cut beginnings as the Intergalactic Faerie Funk
to the subtler, pop-imbued sound found on their latest
offering, The Zero To One Sessions.
Multi-instrumentalists Marc Hug, Dominica Paige and
Peter Spiers combine slinky, broken beats with laptops,
guitars, mandolin, cello and vocals to create what might
be described as "folktronica" reminiscent
of glitch-pop heroes Zero7 and Fourtet. Though they
have a couple of remixes, singles and seven-inches under
their belt, the Zero To One Sessions find Mossyrock
solidifying their sound and offering a perfect soundtrack
to a lazy summer day.
Iit was actually pretty amazing," admits guitarist,
mandolin player and laptop operator Marc Hug. "We
went to this huge gallery in Kitchener Ontario (the
Zero To One Gallery) with this ballroom. So we set up
a bunch of fabric in a circle and didn’t leave
for 10 days. We actually set up a tent and we’d
sleep in the tent and then just wake up and make music.
We’d sometimes stop for food, but we’d really
just work until three in the morning and then do it
all over again." So was born The Zero To One Sessions
– a simultaneously organic and pre-programmed
romp through textures, loops and beats. The magic of
Mossyrock lies in their ability to manipulate the sounds
they create live. The most fundamental tool at their
disposal is the Ableton Live program, a loop-based software
music sequencer designed specifically to be as much
an instrument for live performances as it is a tool
for composing and arranging. Everyone from Blockhead
and Daft Punk to Mogwai and the Crystal Method use the
program in their live shows. Because of the performance
aspect of the program, processing is done in real time,
rather than the playback mode typical of most other
sequencers and sample programs. This creates an interesting
visual effect for the performer and the audience.
"There are definitely moments where i’ve
been playing guitar onstage and the audience watching
me will see me playing guitar but they can’t hear
it," says Hug. "I’ll be catching a loop
of it and then i’ll stop playing and the loop
will play. I’ve seen a couple people look really
confused, but then some people do know and get it."
It’s a process that works well for the group both
in the studio and performing live. "I’m not
a very good guitar player," admits Hug with a laugh.
"but I work out these pretty little lines and then
loop them. Then I’ll do another thing with the
guitar and put it on top and blend the two together
to create something that really can’t be played
on guitar in real time. "All the sounds you’ll
hear we’ve created ourselves and manipulated in
some way. It’s a whole layering and building process
where we’ll incorporate guitar, vocals and mandolin
that we’ll catch in a loop. But at the same time
we’re playing completely live."
¥ The Seattle Stranger - Critic Picks - Recommended
- Mossyrock - July 6 At The Jewl Box Theatre
¥ Las Vegas Weekly - Stranger Danger
Mossyrock mastermind Marc Hug seems to attract all the
wrong things. Standing next to Marc Hug can get you
killed. The guy attracts violence. It's his oddball
superpower, like he's got some radioactively-induced
compass that inadvertently points him towards massive
brawls and drive-bys. Granted, part of the Mossyrock
leader's problem is proximity; he and his partner, cello
player and vocalist Dominica Paige, live in the borderlands
of Brooklyn, that narrow stretch between the tony townhouses
of Brooklyn Heights and what the Wu Tang clan long ago
dubbed Crooklyn. So odds are he's going to bump into
something shady on occasion.
But only someone with mutant abilities gets to witness
a knife fight during his CD release party -- at a Chuck
E. Cheese. Yet last fall Hug and his friends stood in
shock while two families, presumably at the kiddie palace
to enjoy the bad pizza, skee-ball and ear-shattering
noise of 6-year-olds screaming, started going after
each other. "They were attacking each other with
bread knives or something," remembers hug. "I've
never seen anything like it before."
At least until three weeks ago when, out getting some
orange juice, Hug rounded a corner just in time to witness
a funeral turn into a gun battle. "There were 40
people fighting. There were gunshots and people running
for their lives. We could smell the gunpowder wafting
through our apartment," says Hug. "The cops
eventually showed up and cleared everyone out, but that
night, when the police were gone, these roving gangs
were out walking the streets. It was a scary situation."
The thing that makes Hug's odd power even more bizarre
is he's as mild mannered as a sleepy puppy. He talks
quietly. He looks as threatening as a group hug. And
his music is the kind of stuff a diehard clubber would
listen to while hanging out with his shoegazer friends
-- hushed, mellow and melodic electro-indie rock that
floats by your ear like bubbles of sound.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that Hug was once a
trifle more aggressive, though just in his desire to
have fun.Tthe canadian transplant was once -- and on
rare occasions, still is -- at the heart of the Intergalactic
Faerie Funk, a band/collective that pumped out haunting
house music with the efficiency and killing power of
an M-16. The band's first full-length, the "Intergalactic
Faerie Funk Debut", gurgled and bounced like a
club vixen with the hiccups. But its second disc, "The
Happy Ending Massage", was decidedly mellower,
a lounge-ready experiment in chilled beats and binary
code that both opened doors for the band and drove original
fans nuts. Reviews were positive. Hug was happy with
the music. And while some party offers dried up, the
group started getting more gigs, though not in the south.
"They didn't like the word 'faerie' much,"
he laughs. So a name change later, Mossyrock -- and
potentially Hug's magnetic pull -- was formed.
"We never intended to be a house band," says
hug. "We just did this house set at a party and
that got the ball rolling. We never thought about being
pigeonholed. We were just having fun. We wanted to play
everything." And Mossyrock now gives Hug the opportunity
to do that. Built around intertwining loops of sound
-- from acoustic guitar to horns, computerized noise
to Paige's delicate warbling -- Mossyrock is capable
of doing anything Hug feels like, from the beautiful,
indie-rock-inspired "I Want To Eat Your Eyes"
to "Whiskey Is The Devil," a track that vaguely
sounds like giants dancing during a digitized drizzle.
Jazzy bass lines often snuggle up to molasses-coated
funk beats. Bits of melody crackle in like someone else's
phone conversation. Noise somehow sucked from the depths
of space hovers in the background, giving a song like
"Lips That Hurt" an otherworldly feel, even
as it descends into a drum circle breakdown.
"When Isit down to write i definitely have these
ideas of what I want something to sound like,"
says Hug, "but it doesn't ever quite happen that
way. Something better does. These songs get built up
so much, with layers of loops and sound, and i just
love it when that happens. The only problem is when
we have to re-learn how to play them live so people
don't think there's a laptop on stage playing an MP3,
but it's definitely worth it."
Even when the bread knives come out.
Mossyrock (with Toof) - Wed., May 17, 10 pm - Divebar
- 3035 E. Tropicana Ave.
¥ Marc Francis is a modern musical Gypsy. In sound as
well as real life.
-Now Weekly
¥ Beatroute - Mike Pathos - Mossyrock : It's On A Roll
- July 2006
Marc Hug is on the move. I've caught him shortly before
leaving Brooklyn to begin the North American tour with
his bands Mossyrock (with vocalist Dominica Paige, and
guitarist Peter Spiers) and the Intergalactic Faerie
Funk (IFF).
The industrial noise i hear in the background to our
conversation seems worlds away from the organic sounds
of the Mossyrock universe, where guitars are guitars,
mandolins are mandolins, and violas are violas - or
are they?
On their first EP released last fall, Mossyrock marries
the old soul of american folk styles to the uptempo
heartbeat of electro. It's a long way from being blown
away by 808 State's 'Pacific' as a young guy in Toronto.
But not as far from the quirky style of Lullaby Baxter,
occasional Calgarian and perennial musical eccentric.
"When I was in Ottawa I heard Lullaby Baxter on
the radio and have been a huge fan ever since,"
Hug exclaims. It was such influences, plus meeting the
rest of what would become Mossyrock in Philadephia,
that led to Hug's technicolour revolution from the more
monochrome explorations of dark house music in his older
and ongoing solo project, Intergalactic Faerie Funk
(who recently got mix/remix treatment from house pioneer
Jesse Saunders). Live IFF is "playing improvised
versions of the recorded tracks. Very electronic. Maybe
a bass player, but it is very different," from
the full, frequent and freaky folky use of live instrumentation
in Mossyrock.
Which brings us to this most brilliant of band names
- how did 'Mossyrock' come to be called "Mossyrock"?
Marc tells all: "Mossyrock is the name of a small
town in Washington state where Ifound myself after Burning
Man in 1998. It was a really wonderfully beautiful place
and we were in some shitty little diner having a great
conversations. The name of the place just really stuck
with me. I always knew that Iwanted to do something
with it and so finally - we did.
Marc writes most of the music and then passes it along
to Dominica who "adds her layer to it by coming
up with some vocals and melodies and cello and viola.
The third person we work with has the most amazing patience
for mastering and eqing and taking care of that side
of things". Which only goes to show: Every good
electronic band needs at least one good knob twiddler.
Even if said knobs are more likely to be virtual these
days: According to Marc, "making electronic music
has definitely gotton easier. I used to use an Emu sampler
and a Groovebox to sequence it and while I made some
pretty bizarre samples it would take hours and hours
and hours." Using Ableton Live both in the studio
and on stage now, the whole process has becom more natural
- more Mossy(rock), even? "That natural sound is
kinda wonderful - not coming back in a huge way but
maybe a bit more popular now, again." It's almost
like now we have all this technology people were in
such a rush to get in the twentieth century, people
aren't so happy and want to go back to a simpler technological
time. "I don't know if Iwant to go back, but i'm
definitely enjoying using elements of it".
¥ Salt Lake City Weekly - Jamie Gadette - Music Picks
- May 2006
Come on down!
You could label Mossyrock as electronic indie artists,
but that description might lend comparisons to Bjork,
Sigur Ros, or some other transcendent Icelandic band.
And while the Brooklyn-based group has ties to Intergalactic
Faerie Funk, their sound is not so mythical but rather
grounded in real-world bossa nova and down-tempo lounge
with the occasional shredding guitar thrown in for good
measure. This is what happens when the price is right
theme song is recycled through drum machines, synthesizers
and a magical tape loop. Listen closely. It's in there.
¥ Amarillo Globe News - Get Out! - Trent Brunsten -
Music Pick - May 2006
Mossyrock, Toof to electronify audience.
Electronic music falls under a large umbrella. You know
this firsthand if you've ever experienced the frustration
of browsing through your local cd store's electronic/techno
music section only to find all the good stuff shrouded
by musical embarrassments such as Right Said Fred, Aqua
and Culture Beat. Basically anyone who uses a drum machine
falls into the category of electronic/techno.
So, like a puzzled biologist who has just discovered
a new species, we try to label bands like Mossyrock
and Toof - two bands set to play sunday night at the
Nat Ballroom, 604 S. Georgia St. - doors for the show
will open at 8 p.m. Opening the bill for the evening
will be the amarillo native band Kickin' Wookies.
Both Mossyrock and Toof use drum machines for their
percussions but aren't purely electronic. "There's
sort of a group of people that Ireally like," said
Marc Hug of Mossyrock. "and I feel like a part
of that world that doesn't have an easily accessible
name. There are some who call it electroacoustic. folktronic.
One name I heard mentioned was electronic indie folk."
Mossyrock - a trio consisting of Hug, Dominica Paige
and Jeffro Richards - combines an arsenal of samplers,
guitar, mandolin, viola/cello, keys, bass and vocals
to generate creative house vibes for their shows.
Mossyrock met Toof when they were on the same bill at
a show in New Orleans. "We instantly understood
what (Toof) was doing," said Hug.
As the one-man band Toof, Trey D'Amico of Austin combines
his musical talents with a sharp, quick-witted humor
to entertain audiences. His lyrics are akin to the flaming
lips, and his sound sits somewhere near Aphex Twin and
the Postal Service.
Regardless of how you want to categorize the music of
Mossyrock and Toof, the Sunday show at the historic
Nat Ballroom is going to be something the live music
scene in Amarillo doesn't see very often.
cover charge is $5.
"Music pays the bills," said D'Amico jokingly.
"I'm actually living out my dream of working at
a grocery store."
¥ Resonance Magazine #47 - Kris Kendall - Mossyrock
Shortwave - November 2005
Disparate House Vibes.
Planning on hosting a record-release party at the Chuck
E. Cheese in Brooklyn? Talk to Mossyrock first. The
self-described "Dark and lovely electronic indie
rock" Trio enjoyed their time at the arcade/pizzeria,
sure. But the group learned two days later that while
celebrating their debut LP "The Zero To One Sessions",
they'd narrowly avoided a violent family feud. "We
read about these families having a knife fight inside
the Chuck E. Cheese," says programmer/guitarist
Marc Hug. "There was some argument and one guy
was slashed witha bread knife".
Hug, Dominica Paige (vocals, cello, samples) and Jeffro
Richards (guitar, bass, keys) have bounced around several
cities, seperately and together over the years, but
now dance a strange tango with Brooklyn, Mossyrock's
current base of operations. As hug says, "Theres
just nothing like where we live in Brooklyn." life
on the border of two neighbourhoods - one "historic
and nice" the other "historically not nice,
" Hug says - plays out in the psychedelic tension
in Mossyrock's music.
Squeezing sequenced house beats into territories normally
reserved for jazz, zero to one starts with gurgling
beats that slowly gain momentum with electric rythm
guitar and keyboard noises that hint at melody. But
whenever Mossyrock reaches full-on danceable mode, an
acoustic guitar loop is likely to cut a dry swath throught
the funk. Even the distant trumpet call in "I Want
To Eat Your Eyes" seems to come from the song next
door - sounds from the real world invading a daydrem.
Hug and his cohorts thrive in a live setting and are
eagerly touring in support of Zero To One during the
fall. But back at home, he cites the films of David
Lynch, Paiges love of "anything gorgeous and wonderful"
and the band's improvisations during their shows (captured
on Hug's laptop as they play) as contributions to the
songwriting. "The other day Iheard someone say,
'I can't play accordion on the guitar,'" says Hug.
"and Itotally have an idea for a song from that."
Perhaps that stabbing at chuck e cheese will become
a mossyrock tune as well.
¥ Exclaim Magazine - Matthew Hiscock - The Zero To One
Sessions LP Review - August 2005
If Wendy/Walter Carlos had risen to fame for scoring
’70s pornography, this album’s opening track
is what it would have sounded like. Based in Brooklyn
but brought to us courtesy of Canadian label Nice+Smooth,
Mossyrock make up-tempo, instrumental break beats heavy
on synths and unusual effects - though that doesn’t
really come close to describing the spread of sounds
here. In some parts (“Whiskey Is The Devil”)
there is a funky latin flavour, while in others (“Vino
Collapso”) it sounds like a Jimmy Jam and Terry
Lewis production circa Rhythm Nation - until the acoustic
guitars come out, that is. So it’s hard to know
where they’re going with all this, but yet they
pull it off. Kind of like if Tortoise decided to make
a “dance” album. How could that not be good?
¥ Arizona Night Buzz - Johnathan Bond - Music Pick -
May 2006
Toof, Mossyrock get electronic at CounterCulture May
19.
Sometimes it pays off to front your own stuff. Or toot
your own horn. Or what have you. I am speaking about
industrious touring acts that take the time to find
out about local publications on their stops and contact
them with show info in advance. This is one of the best
ways for get-in-the-van level acts other than Myspace
or touring your ass off endlessly to possibly drum up
a few people and maybe build a fan base or at least
get some gas money for the next gig.
I welcome any contact from touring bands, and it does
happen sometimes, but most often when I check out the
bands I just don't dig 'em. There are more bands than
stars in the sky and not too many of them make constellations
that appeal to my twisted musical taste, but sometimes
they do.
That's the case this time with two bands that are touring
together and coming to the CounterCulture Cafe Friday,
May 19. They contacted my editor via e-mail well in
advance of their tour (don't write the day of, please,
and try to contact us a couple of weeks in advance)
and when I checked out their respective sites, I liked
what I heard.
On the bill at the Cafe is a band from Brooklyn called
Mossyrock. They are an experimental electronic trio
that takes organic music they have created and cuts
it up in a way that would make ol' Burroughs proud.
They have a bunch of melted and stop-start beats that
might trick even the most adept fractured dancer, but
there is also a lot of structure to their loops. They
play live instruments as well as recorded and live samples
and loops at their shows, including a cello, which can't
hurt. From what I gathered, Mossyrock was born out of
another project centered around improvisation.

I sent Toof (stage name) and Mossyrock's Mark Hug (real
name) questions and they both had cool things to type...
AZNightBuzz: Are you located in Austin? How did you
hook up with your touring mate Mossyrock?
Toof: I live in Austin, but I hooked up with Mossyrock
a couple of years ago when we played a show together
in New Orleans. I don't know if you know this, but there
was a hurricane there last year. Anyhoo, we kept in
touch and realized that we could do these little tours
and get along really well. I haven't seen my own self
naked as much as I've seen Mossyrock's naughty bits.
AZNB: How do you guys travel when you go on these long
distance tours?
Toof: We usually rent a little car to save money on
gas, then we all like to complain about how small the
car is for the entire tour. But this time it's only
three of us instead of four, and you would be surprised
at how luxurious a Ford Focus can be with only three
people!
AZNB: How did Mossyrock get together?
Mark Hug: Mossyrock evolved out of another project that
I am a part of, called I.F.F., which is very much an
improvised electronic dance music project. There was
a rotating collective of people and within those people
there were a couple of us interested in making some
different styles of music and creating more of a traditional
band. Voila!
AZNB: Your work has a lot of loops and samples, where
do you find your source material?
MH: About 99 percent of the loops and samples are created
by us. All the guitars, mandolins, strings, et cetera,
were played by us, then chopped up and arranged and
looped. The sounds we didn't create were taken from
answering machines or field recordings.
AZNB: Does everyone write or is there a principle songwriter?
MH: I write most of the music; I'm responsible for the
framework of the songs. Then Dominica will have a listen
and add to it, and we'll work on perfecting the arrangements.
When we've got most of the work down, Jeffro comes in
and cleans it up.
AZNB: You are based in NYC and it seems Toof is based
in Austin, yet you have toured together before and are
touring together this time. How did you guys hook up?
MH: We met toof when we played with him in New Orleans
a few years back. We had a rather rowdy late night,
sunrise-fleeing, alcohol-fueled adventure, where we
all promised one another that we would do it all again.
He's become one of our closest friends and certainly
our favourite tour buddy. He is also probably one of
the funniest people I have ever known.
AZNB: Have you played Phoenix before?
MH: We played in Phoenix on our last go-round with Toof
in March 2005.
AZNB: When you play live what is the musical set up,
who plays what etc.
MH: Dominica sings, plays cello, toy piano, and keyboards.
I play guitar and mandolin and also run Ableton Live,
which allows me to catch loops of what's being played
on the fly. I also use it to control all the drums and
effects. Jeffro plays guitar, bass, and keyboards.
AZNB: What percentage of your music is instrumental?
MH: I would say that right now about half of our live
set is instrumental, moving more towards one-third.
We've been adding a lot more vocals to our songs lately.
AZNB: If you had to describe your band's sound, what
would you say?
MH: Lovely electronic indie rock from dirty, broken
Brooklyn
¥ Arizona Night Buzz - Johnathan Bond Mossyrock/Toof
Concert Review - May 2006
I recently wrote about Mossyrock and Toof, two compact
bands from out of town that routinely get into a compact
car and do compact little tours of our fair land. The
two bands, which both favor the fusion of electronic
and live instruments, recently paid a visit to the valley
Friday, May 19, and i caught most of their sets at CounterCulture
Cafe.
First up was Mossyrock, an electro-organic band from
Brooklyn, which singer/violinist/laptop operator Dominica
Paige kept reminding the people watching the show, is
in New York. This time Mossyrock is touring as a duo
(Marc Hug makes up the other half), and the two with
their gear and assortment of instruments created a nice
fractured, living musical landscape. They would capture
live sound and loop it, using some sampled beats but
for the most part creating the elements for their musical
pastiche on the fly. When I talked Hug previously, we
talked about how the band played guitar, mandolin and
controlled some mystery machine hidden behind a big
black thing that glowed like the trunk in Repo Man.
I secretly suspect it was a laptop, but I will never
know…
Their fusion of quasi-classical elements with electronic
dance with live loops and subtle vocals made for a nice
ear meal. Next up was Toof. He was funny and good, and
though electronic based stuff doesn’t usually
do it for me, both the bands this night were enjoyable.
This may have something to do with the smart use of
available technology, and using it as an element of
the composition and not the whole. Again I can imagine
Toof winning over an audience at a larger show, and
might even be best if a total surprise. The audience
wasn’t unfriendly, just sober, and Toof might
do better in a 21 and older venue with plenty of booze.
I wasn’t sure what the group of five teenage girls
were thinking when every Toof song was opened with a
rambling, funny monologue that eventually ended with
him muttering “um, this song is about… about…
buh, bu-ha, bu-ha, BALLS!”
I sent some questions about the tour to weary travelers
Mossyrock and received some answers after the band arrived
in Austin to end their micro-tour. Here’s what
Dominica Paige had to say:
AZNightBuzz: How has the tour been going? Any strange
tales from the road?
Dominica Page: The tour was quite successful, thanks.
There are always ups and downs, but this one was rather
enjoyable overall. Mossyrock got a lot of press and
good reviews. Marc and I are partial to being on the
road; I’m fond of watching the world slip past
at 80 miles per hour. There is one bizarre story that
sticks out. In Salt Lake City, this Danish man named
Flemming read about us in the weekly and came to the
show. He was a total blast, and we ended up staying
in his hotel room with him. Morning comes, and we awake
to him standing in front of us in his boxer-briefs with
his plentiful package emphasized, and he’s holding
up Toof’s wallet. “I do not know what is
happening, but this I found in the toilet.” Toof
is completely delirious, trying to process the information
at hand. A Danish man with a well-endowed package is
standing in front of him quizzically, holding up his
urine-soaked wallet. Toof had apparently dropped in
it in the toilet during a midnight bathroom break. We
all had a big laugh at his expense.
AZNB: What was the best show on the tour (tell the truth)?
Looks like you guys are parting ways with Toof for now,
how did this tour stack up against others?
DP: Austin and Denver are my personal favorites. Great
crowds, great reactions. Juarez was surreal. Our first
tour with Toof was probably the most fun; being our
first adventure together, we were in this constant state
of rowdiness. Last summer we did a northeast and Canadian
tour together, and that one was very draining. I’m
still not certain if I’ve recovered from it.
AZNB: How was Juarez this time? Please tell the readers
about the first Juarez show.
DP: Juarez was certainly more adventurous this time
around. El Segundo Piso, the venue where we were booked
and where we played last year, decided at the last minute
that it was no longer going to be an all-ages show,
and many of the kids who came out were underage. We
ended up moving the show to another place a few minutes
away - down a mile-long dirt road. I’d be lying
if I didn’t say I felt a slight anxiousness on
the way there. It turned out great, though, in the end.
Everyone was quite sweet to us. All these little indie
rock kids came - they were terribly adorable. They were
totally into what we were doing - clapping along and
singing the words and cheering, which is worlds away
from the too-cool-for-school attitudes of New Yorkers.
They bought us strange presents like lollipops and Spam
and chocolate flavoured condoms. They made us sign autographs
and lined up for handjobs from Marc.
AZNB: Did Marc give any dollar handjobs?
DP: No, but he gave one for 11 pesos in Juarez.
AZNB: Do you really think people in Phoenix don’t
know Brooklyn is in NY? Phoenix, for all it’s
strip malls and heat is the fifth largest city in the
country…
DP: You mean y’all have maps in Phoenix? I thought
everyone lived in shanty towns, mined all day long,
and raised cacti in their spare time. I’m fairly
certain people in Phoenix know where Brooklyn is - that’s
just my dry humour. Still, with the American public
education system being what it is, one never can be
sure.
AZNB: Explain again how you hook up your gear, how much
is live and how it all works.
DP: We run everything into a Mackie mixer which allows
us to use the auxillary sends to run sounds through
our laptops. That way, we can grab loops of the guitar,
mandolin, cello, viola, and vocals and run them through
effects and build or create new loops off of them. It’s
all live, really. The drum loops were made by us and
are sequenced live using a program called Ableton Live.
Everything is created for the moment.
AZNB: Will you be back in Arizona anytime?
DP: Eventually. During the winter months, certainly.
Our tours used to be quite long; we’d go on the
road for the upwards of two months at a time. With gas
prices being what they are now, that’s a bit harder
to do, so we tend to split up the country into sections.
We’ve a month-long tour planned for the Pacific
Northwest and Canada for July. We’re going to
Europe mid-August, and then we’ll do the East
in the autumn. So, my long-winded answer is yes, but
not for some time.
AZNB: Just how tired are you?
DP: I’m in bed this very moment.
¥ All Music Guide - The Zero To One Sessions LP Review
- January 2006
Toronto-based electronica label Nice+Smooth mostly seems
to specialize in a kind of electro-bossa nova, which
makes the decidedly northern hemisphere sound of Mossyrock's
debut album something of a surprise. Producer and multi-instrumentalist
Marc Hug, a Canadian residing in New York, is the root
of Mossyrock, and Hug favors a kind of d.i.y. brand
of indie electronica. The Zero To One Sessions isn't
lo-fi or slapdash, but there's a decidedly insular feel
to these low-key, meandering grooves, an appealing sense
of playfulness that's quirky without being forbidding
or offputting. Elements of jazz (particularly in the
loungey muted trumpet solos that decorate a few songs)
and folk (the strummy acoustic guitars that propel several
rythms) are present and accounted for, but for the most
part, the Zero To One Sessions explores what happens
when a songwriter/producer happens upon a cool drum
machine or synth rhythm, loops it, and sees what happens
from there.
¥ Mosoul UK - Jon Freer - The Zero To One Sessions LP
Review - September 2005
The oddly named Mossyrock make fun cruising guitar and
silly electronix based compositions, whose track titles
are only marginally more bizarre than the music itself.
From the shape of their grooves, one might expect them
to hail from the west coast, but the group actually
formed in Philly and currently reside in Brooklyn. "According
To The Language Fossils" suggests they were frozen
in time at an age when stringy guitars and visionary
synths ruled the world. The charmingly titled "Pissjug"
throws electrified keys and synth gurgles against sticky
beats and bass nastiness. "Stress Kid" takes
its energy from almost d&b styled percussion, which
rattles along under wobbly synths and feeling blue keys.
Strangely endearing.
¥ TBTMO - Rob Mall - Mossyrock LP Review - May 2005
Mossyrock is a new project from the Intergalactic Faerie
Funk front man Marc Hug, a former Philadelphian (now
in Brooklyn) who was actually born Canadian. While the
IFF sound focused mainly on chugging dark house grooves
flavored with live instrumentation; Mossyrock creates
glistening pop loop gems by layering looped beats with
textures, acoustic guitars, cellos, and haunting vocals.
¥ Eye Weekly - Denise Benson - Mossyrock LP Review -
August 2005
The boys at Nice+Smooth Ultramedia have bumped up the
volume of late -- not only are they treating us to the
sounds of sol azul and the breezy beats collection,
they've also gotten behind the hooky, house-y, indie-psych
instrumentals of Mossyrock. Aproject of global wanderer
Marc Hug -- also the founder of ever-evolving project
Intergalactic Faerie Funk and no stranger to fans of
festivals such as OM -- Mossyrock ups the artist's fun(k)
quotient on the new Zero To One Sessions.
¥ Disquiet - Marc Weidenbaum - The Zero To One Sessions
LP Review - September 2005
Mossyrock 's 'The Zero To One Sessions' mix loungey,
often Herb Alpert-ish folk-pop with electronic touches.
¥ Studio Distribution - The Zero To One Sessions LP
Review - September 2005
Currently one of the hardest working bands in America’s
burgeoning indie-rock/electronic crossover scene, Mossyrock’s
debut CD for Toronto’s Nice+Smooth label entitled,
The Zero To One Sessions, is a floating, textural romp
fusing elements of their past electronic bent with their
current indie rock leanings. Recent comparisons to current
american peers such as the Books, Octopus Project and
Toof are appropriate, as are the references and nods
to the otherworldly yet highly nod-worthy sounds of
the Orb, a twist of Lemon Jelly and even the slyer moods
of Matthew Herbert.
¥ Eye Weekly - Elizabeth Mitkos - Artist Spotlight -
November 2005 - Mossyrock.
Who: Brooklyn-based Mossyrock (Marc Hug, Dominica Paige,
Jeffro Richards) have been incessantly playing their
broken beats in dark, dirty bars across the US and Canada.
Currently touring their debut album, 'The Zero To One
Sessions' (on Toronto imprint Nice+Smooth), these "modern
musical gypsies" are also finishing an EP titled
'Lizards Are Still Silent'.
What: Lovely electronic indie-rock. "Something
reminiscent of a strip club in Reno" says Paige.
Inspired by bluegrass, folk, indie-rock and tech-house,
Mossyrock fuse melodies, harmonies, violin, banjo, mandolin
and accordion. Says Marc, "At times we're like
a cross between the Books and Lemon Jelly, or so we've
been told."
Where: Saturday Nov. 26 at The Hooch (817 Queen West).
"We play in new york city frequently," Paige
says. "as it is so enormous, I'm fairly certain
we could play every night of the year and not hit the
same venue twice."
Favourite record of all time: Marc: Camper Van Beethoven's
'Key Lime Pie' and My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless';
Dominica: Belle and Sebastian's 'If You're Feeling Sinister'
and the Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead'.
Favourite record right now: Marc: Langhorne Slim's 'When
The Sun's Gone Down'; Dominica: "i've been on a
big Blur kick lately."
Favourite non-musical acticity: "Riding bikes,
knitting, and eating brains to steal power."
Favourite after party past time: "If we're lucky
enough to find ourselves in Toronto, it's eating as
many topping-drenched veggie dogs from the vendors at
Queen and Spadina as the laws of physics will allow."
¥ KSCR review - Nathan Punwar
D.i.y. bedroom songwriting gets tangled up with some
fuzzy yarn and some electronics, and the result is Mossyrock.
It’s not that the quality of these tracks is lo-fi
(they aren’t), but that the music is insular and
breathy. Many songs have a folk-y feel, with gentle
acoustic guitars driving the rhythm. Others have just
a touch of jazz and lounge, allowing the music to be
a bit playful without going to far. This varied approach
keeps things fresh and interesting throughout the disc,
making this album more than just a curious bedroom experiment.
¥ Rezension - DJ Finn
Was für ein percussives und analoges soundfeuerwerk,
elektronisch und akustisch zugleich!
d ubbig, elektronisch voll korrekt, präsentiert
sich hier "the zero to one session" auf dem
label von Nice & Smooth von Mossyrock. Experimentell
gewagt, steigen sie in ganz andere dimensionen ein.
Nicht das ich sie mit Mouse On Mars vergleichen will,
oder mit den Kraftwerks von 2006, wegen den elektro-artigen
einflüssen, die zwischendurch mal hervorkommen
- nein, es sind die feinheiten in der produktion, die
diese cd zu dem werden lassen, was sie interessant macht:
ein soundfeuerwerk auf akustisch, elektronsiche und
percussive art!
Ein muss für jeden der sich dem chillout, dem jazz
und dem funk verschrieben hat! TOP

¥ For music licenincing, questions, or any other information
please contact: mossyrock [[[at]]] gmail [[[dot]]] com